Norge (ship, 1900)
|
|
|---|---|
 Coastal armored ship Norge 1910 |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Coastal armored ship |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong, Whitworth & Co , Elswick , Building No. 698 |
| Keel laying | April 14, 1899 |
| Launch | March 31, 1900 |
| Commissioning | February 1901 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk in Narvik on April 9, 1940 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
3,848 ts construction, |
| length |
94.6 m over everything, |
| width |
15.4 m |
| Draft |
5 m |
| crew |
261 men |
| drive |
6 Yarrow boilers |
| speed |
16.5 kn |
| Range |
7300 nm at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Coal supply |
250 (max. 583) ths |
| Armor |
Type Krupp |
| Belt armor |
152 mm |
| Turrets |
203 mm |
| Casemates |
127 mm |
| Command tower |
203 mm |
| Sister ship | |
The Norge was the third coastal armored ship of the Royal Norwegian Navy . The ship was at 1899 Sir William G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. in Elswick near Newcastle-upon-Tyne , England, to put Kiel , 1900 rolled off the pile , and was put into service the 1,901th The Norge was sunk with two torpedoes by the destroyer Bernd von Arnim during the German attack on Norway on April 9, 1940 in the port of Narvik . Only 90 men of their crew survived the sinking.
General
The Norge and her sister ship Eidsvold were built as part of the general rearmament that was supposed to protect Norway against possible military action by Sweden and finally culminated in 1905 with the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian personal union and the complete independence of Norway.
Since the two armored ships of the Bjørgvin class ( Bjørgvin and Nidaros ) ordered in Great Britain in 1912 were confiscated by the British Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War , the Eidsvold and the Norge - although long completely out of date - formed until April 9, 1940, when both sunk by German destroyers off Narvik , the backbone of the Norwegian Navy.
Building history
Because of the aforementioned tensions between the states linked in personal union, the Norwegian parliament approved the construction of four new ironclad ships in 1895 to replace existing obsolete monitors . Because of the tensions, they were not ordered in Sweden, where such ships had already been built, but the British company Sir William G. Armstrong received the building contract for two ships of 3500 t in 1895, the Harald Haarfagre and the Tordenskjold in Service came and had two 210-mm guns in single turrets and a 120-mm medium artillery battery.
The chief designer of the British construction company, Philip Watts , then visited Norway with a few employees and tried to get the other orders. Six different designs were presented to the Norwegians, who finally placed the order for two more ships in January 1899.
These ships were 94.6 m long and 15.7 m wide and had a draft of 5.4 m, making them somewhat longer and wider than the preceding ships of the Tordenskjold class. With 3848 ts of design displacement (3645 ts standard displacement ), they were the largest combat ships in the Norwegian Navy. They had 152 mm belt armor and 203 mm turret armor made from the more modern Krupp steel, but were only inadequately protected against underwater weapons (mines and torpedoes). The maximum speed was 17.2 knots. The crew originally consisted of 270 men, but was reduced to just 238 in 1940. When it was sunk, 191 men were on board the Norge .
With two 210 mm guns as their main armament as well as six 150 mm and six 76 mm guns, four 47 mm rapid-fire guns and two underwater torpedo tubes, they were very powerful for their time, comparable or comparable to the ships of the German Siegfried class. even superior. However, they were soon obsolete with the development of the dreadnought ships of the line . Of the two ships previously delivered, the Norge and the Eidsvold were easy to distinguish by two chimneys. Their combat strength was higher due to the central artillery reinforced with 150 mm guns and the modern Krupp armor.
Norway's independence
When Norway separated from Sweden, there were parties on both sides who feared, and sometimes wanted, a military separation. The Eidsvold was at that time the flagship of the Norwegian fleet of four new ironclad ships and 18 torpedo boats.
The four Norwegian coastal armored ships formed the "Skagerrak Squadron" with six torpedo boats 1st class of the Hval type and the destroyer Valkyrjen as a guide boat on the south coast west of the Oslofjord to deal with a feared Swedish attack from the sea on Oslo and the military and industrial installations in To fend off Eastern Norway, an offensive action against Gothenburg was also planned. The other four 1st class torpedo boats and the two cruisers Frithjof and Viking stayed in front of Bergen .
The Swedish fleet consisted of eight modern and three old ironclad ships, five modern torpedo cruisers of the Örnen class of 800 tons, 23 modern torpedo boats and the Hajen submarine . The Swedish fleet shifted several units to the west, but had no plans to attack Norway. A political solution was found before acts of war took place.
First and only combat
In the early morning of April 9, 1940, in fog and blowing snow, ten destroyers of the German Navy under Commodore Friedrich Bonte ran into the Ofotfjord as part of the Weser Exercise operation to occupy Narvik . Their arrival was noticed and reported by Norwegian merchant ships, whereupon the two coastal armored ships Eidsvold and Norge in port got ready for action, albeit with an incomplete crew.
At around 04:15 am, the Eidsvold sighted the leading destroyer, the Wilhelm Heidkamp , Bonte's flagship, and asked it to stop. After negotiations could not persuade the captain of the Eidsvold to surrender without a fight, the Wilhelm Heidkamp shot a torpedo volley at the Norwegian ship and sank it within seconds. Captain Willoch on the Eidsvold had informed his superior, Captain Per Askim on the Norge , which was a little deeper in the fjord, of his intention to take up the fight, and on the Norge the explosion that preceded the sinking of the Eidsvold could be heard. Shortly afterwards, the first two German destroyers appeared about 800 meters away. Askim gave orders to open fire on the Bernd von Arnim with the 210 mm and 150 mm guns . The first volley was short, the second too long, and none of the eleven or twelve shells fired hit.
The Bernd von Arnim first went to the harbor pier to land her mountain troops before they returned fire with both her 12.7 cm guns and machine guns . The second incoming destroyer, the Georg Thiele , also shot at the coastal armored ship. The poor visibility, which had already hindered the Norwegians, also made it difficult for the Germans to score. Corvette captain Curt Rechel on the Bernd von Arnim then shot a total of three torpedo double fans at the Norge . The first two missed their target, but the third hit amidships. The Norge sank in just a minute with the screws still turning. 90 men of their crew were able to save themselves, while 101 men were killed.
Whereabouts
Parts of the wreck were scrapped on site. The rest is about 20 meters deep in the port of Narvik. It has been declared a war memorial and soldier's grave by the Norwegian government, where diving is prohibited.
literature
- Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1979, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 .
- Bruno Weyer: Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten 1905. 2nd edition, JF Lehmann Verlag, Munich on archive.org
Web links
- Norwegian website about the battle between the Norge and the Bernd von Arnim , with photos
- Postcard with a colored picture of the Norge from 1906
- NORGE coastal battleships
- Side view of the Norge
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brook, p. 208.
- ↑ Weyer 1941/42, p. 140.
- ↑ Brook, pp. 207f.
- ^ Jacob Børresen: Sjømilitære krigsforberedelser i ytre Oslofjord summer 1905. Vestfold University College and Borre Historical Society. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (norw.) (accessed April 20, 2012)
- ↑ according to Brook, p.210 Norge fired 17 rounds
